Is the browser as we know it today a phase-out model? Can we use the web without it? The answer to the second question is a clear yes. Will headless browsers kill web design?

Headless Browser: UI Without UI

Headless browsers have been around for about ten years now. They are applications based on the standard rendering engines (Chrome, Webkit, Gecko), and can display web content without actually displaying it. They lack the visual user interface; they are headless.

Originally, headless browsers were developed to allow for fast and automatic testing of websites. Usually, this happens via the call level interface (CLI), or defined interfaces (API). Upon request, error messages are sent out as screenshots, or in other specified ways.

Since the introduction of headless browsers, the developer community has had split opinions on them. Some think the technology is nonsense, and would instead test their designs and applications on a bunch of “normal” browsers. This is reasonable.

After all, the visitor the offer is meant for won’t be using a headless browser either. PhantomJS, being one of the most popular ones of its genre, also produces error messages that don’t exist in a regular browser. This is only partly useful.

PhantomJS: One of the Most Popular Headless Browsers. (Screenshot: Noupe)

As a server sided base technology, Node.js is pretty popular with creators of headless browsers as well. A somewhat modern specimen of that kind is ZombieJS, where the name already hints at the headlessness. In contrast to what the name suggests, ZombieJS is said to be extremely fast, making it an excellent choice for widescale efficient testing.

The confident users of headless browsers appreciate the ability to run a plethora of automatic tests via a headless browser, or an entire group of these services in a fast and straightforward way. The main supporters of headless browsers are developers of complex web applications for large target audiences.

The average web developer with a moderate product and client range doesn’t really need the economics of scale, meaning he’s likely to choose the conventional path.

Headless Browser: Google Scales the Benefit

In 2009, the search engine giant Google had the idea to use headless browsers in a very different way. The Californians were facing the problem of being unable to index content dynamically generated via AJAX. In the end, this content only turns into an indexable website after generation, as we need the browser for them to be rendered correctly and become legible.

Thus, the search engine needed an internal browser, to make the content usable. No sooner said than done! Since then, Google has been using headless browsers, allowing them to read content that needs a front-end interaction to get to be displayed, as long as the page operator takes some precautions. Bing is using similar technology.

Now that the browser engines are becoming more and more performant, what does that mean for headless browsers? Right, they are growing increasingly performant as well.

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Show Where We’re Going

One of the core technologies of every Progressive Web App (PWA) is the so-called service worker. This is a JavaScript, capable of executing functions without the website having to be called up at all. You can find some more detailed explanations in the article mentioned above.

The service worker is a part of the headless web itself and can be used by both a headless browser and on the client site. This turns the headless browser into a service that can process programmatic procedures on the server side. This potentially makes the browser on the visitor side redundant.

On the Headless Web Contents Turn Into Modules

The headless browser has modularly pre-rendered contents. These rendered pieces of web content are available for further processing, or for display. It doesn’t necessarily take a browser to display them correctly. At the same time, a native app could take care of the entire presentation, and show a structured layout of the pre-rendered web snippets within the own UI.

Examples of these approaches are Facebook Instant Articles or Google’s AMP Project. In the article mentioned above, I stated that Google should have a particular interest in protecting the open web. AMP is a building block. However it does not receive unrestricted approval.

Google’s AMP-Project. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The web push notifications, as seen under Google’s operating system Android, go into the same direction.

Microdata is an essential factor as well. You may say that even today, there are data transfers via JSON, for example, and you’re right. The headless web takes this a few steps further, though, as it does not only take data from the handover interface but also takes entire function modules, including integrated program logic components.

For that, it is necessary to pay attention to semantically correct markup, to create building blocks that can be used sensibly.

By now, you can also book web push as SaaS, as seen at Zopush (Illustration: Zopush)

Advocates of open web standards might enjoy this. I think it is safe to say that these open standards will gain significance in the future.

The joy of average web designers because of the victory of open web standards could quickly fade away, though. After all, classic web design won’t be needed anymore, and the aspect of architecture moves even more into the focus as it is already. This aspect becomes very clear when looking at AMP. The very standardized display and the delivery of contents via Google servers don’t cater to everyone’s taste. The project is somewhat controversial, but it is almost entirely supported by publishers. Content providers seem to love it.

So, does this mean that the areas of design and development will just be separated even more? Today, at least in front-end development, we still see a mix of the disciplines. This already starts where web designers install the software on the server and adjust the CMS theme in a way that allows it to correctly display dynamic content.

Speaking of headless, we should also mention that the trend continues for CMS. It is even possible to run WordPress and WooCommerce headless, without a frontend. In a standardized form, the contents can be drawn from the backend, and used in any desired way, like in a native app for mobile devices specially made for that.

Aside from the famous market participants, there are also solutions going for headlessness from the start, allowing them to function without legacy burdens. An example for this is ButterCMS, which exists in the Google Cloud; another example is Kentico Cloud, which is also operated as cloud SaaS.

Currently, there is no solution for scaling headless browsers in a way that they can provide thousands of instances at once. This technological obstacle is sure to vanish in the future, but it still exists as of right now. At least until then, websites with a head won’t become redundant.

(The article was originally written in the German language by Dieter Petereit for magazine Dr. Web.)

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Joomla follows WordPress as the second most popular and most used CMS worldwide. The team of professional supplier RSJoomla! has something to give away to three lucky readers of our beloved Noupe magazine.

Joomla is Still More Popular Than Any Other CMS Besides WordPress

Joomla has had a hard time a little more than ten years ago when WordPress entered the market. Development on the Joomla side had become slow. The momentum got lost. Had it not been that way, I wouldn’t bet that WordPress could have overtaken Joomla that easily.

Today, Joomla development is up and running, and a lot of businesses turn to Joomla for their CMS. Other than WordPress, Joomla is, in fact, a real content management system and not an inflated blog system with some CMS features. But, let’s not start a holy war on what’s the real one here.

Meet RSJoomla!. (Screenshot: Noupe)

RSJoomla! and Their Must-have Additions

Should you be rowing the Joomla boat, you have the chance to win yourself some valuable assets today. RSJoomla!, famous for their form extension RSForm! since 2008, have since then extended their offering to more business Joomla extensions as well as Joomla templates. They even started a template club where you get access to all available templates for a small flat fee. Besides their paid products you can also find seven free extensions to brush up your favorite CMS over at their website.

What is on Offer?

In terms of extensions, you will find pretty much everything you might need for a business site. They even offer a firewall extension to keep your installation safe. And that firewall extension, named RSFirewall! is one of the three assets that you can win today. RSFirewall! is a Joomla security extension that enjoys great popularity, offering rich and powerful features that prevent your website from being attacked. Features include: blacklist & whitelist, malware database, database check, and plenty more. In addition, RSFirewall! can simply drop dangerous files that are uploaded (including .php, .exe, .js, .com, .cmd, .bat).

RSJoomla! is giving away a single-site license for RSFirewall! to one of you.

RSFirewall Secures Your Joomla Installation. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The second asset you can win today is a single-site license of the product that started the whole company in the first place. I am talking about the advanced form builder named RSForm!Pro. Why should you spend time with implementing your contact forms when you can simply create them with a few clicks? RSForm!Pro is the most flexible and yet easy to use Joomla! form builder. RSForm!Pro will allow you to build the most advanced forms with an intuitive interface and a lot of integrations.

RSForm!Pro Solves All Your Form-related Problems. (Screenshot: Noupe)

If you are more into the design side of things you will be happy to hear that you can also win a one-year license for their Template Club. All current and future templates will be free to use for you. RSMediaGallery! multisite for 12 months is also included.

How About Some Beautifil Joomla Templates? (Screenshot: Noupe)

How Do You Participate?

So what do you have to do to become one of the lucky bunch, you will surely ask yourself by now. Don’t worry, it’s easy. Simply leave a comment below this article and let us know which asset you’d like to win and what you are planning to do with it. Make sure to enter a valid email address as we cannot contact you under a defunct address in case you should win. Rest assured that we do not give away your address to third parties.

The game starts immediately and runs for one week. All comments coming in before 6 PM CEST on September, 15th will take part in the draw. Good luck!

Noupe readers have known Webydo for a while. We had already introduced you to the web design software in 2013. Today, we want to take a look at how the website builder has evolved since then.

2013 was an exciting year for Webydo. While the system already existed for two years at that point, the public didn’t know about it. These two years were used to finish the software for the market release in a private beta. This way, it was no surprise that Webydo boasted references from over 13,000 designers and more than 70,000 websites from the get-go. Today, the website is a matured product maintained by a matured company. What it offers is a wide array of solutions directed towards designers, and drawn from their B2B needs.

Webydo, Clear Separation From Homepage Building Kits

What makes Webydo so unique? At a glance, you might think of Webydo as just another one of those homepage builder specimen. There’s a lot of competition in that space, and all website builders are mainly aimed towards consumers.

Modern Websites Created With Webydo.

This is where Webydo clearly sets itself apart. Its clear focus on designers and the support of their business models stays present throughout the software’s entire philosophy. Designers that open Webydo for the first time will feel at home right away, as the interface, the controls, the style, and everything else reminds us of the design products made in the house of Adobe.

Webydo’s Outstanding Features

To an extent, the precise orientation towards designers as the target group already defined the design of the user interface, and the entire feature set. As mentioned before, Webydo is close to the giants of graphic design software. This makes the learning effort accordingly low. Especially Photoshop aficionados will love Webydo, as a beloved, old friend is also available here: layers.

Design without code is Webydo’s motto.

Different modes allow you to view and evaluate the websites from the perspective of the designer, the customer that is supposed to add content, and the casual internet visitor. Although it’s almost standard these days, I still want to mention that Webydo creates responsive websites.

The Automatic Layout Tool, Smart Grouping, and Drag Handle

The Automatic Layout Tool lets you move elements into new layouts automatically. This makes it possible to display a bunch of elements as a grid, and – on click – turn it into a single column for the responsive variant. Always keep in mind that we’re talking about a solution that does not require any coding knowledge. The author of this article is fully aware that such can be done with CSS ;-)

The Automatic Layout Tool (GIF: Webydo)

Using smart grouping, users can group different elements, and edit that group as a whole. This is another essential tool for responsive sites.

The drag handle allows you to move elements around the design by mouse, while always keeping the element within the grid. Even small movements, to minimize whitespace, for instance, are smooth and straightforward.

Drag Handle (GIF: Webydo)

Interface Design

Being able to freely arrange the toolboxes (called panels), should also come in handy to a designer’s workflow.

Other Contemporary Features

Of course, the website builder also offers all the features that are currently trending, including parallax, even in the 3D form, ghost buttons, galleries, and tons of other stuff.

Strengthen Your Brand with a Blog.

In the on-site Webydo blog, you’ll find explanations, inspirations, and general information on the Webydo feature set. The blog basically marks the link between the product and the wider design environment.

Just Like your Favorite Pixel Editor: Layers

Webydo’s Business Functions

Webydo’s goal is to not only help you with a design tool but also provide you with the best possible support when it comes to handling your business. It does this in different ways.

First, Webydo gives you a very user-friendly CMS, enabling your customers to take care of his content on his own. In advance, you have already defined which areas they are permitted to alter in the layout.

Next, Webydo allows you to brand the entire system. This way, none of your customers will ever see the term Webydo. This white-labeling is also possible for the CMS backend. There are almost no others in the branch that are that altruistic.

To round out the feature set, you get to send bills for your services to your customers, directly from the backend. On this occasion, I should probably mention that all the traffic to, and away from Webydo is SSL-encrypted.

While this is not one of the traditional services designers usually offer, it does belong to a complete website package: SEO, the search engine optimization. The integrated tools can even be used for that. Thus, the SEO basics are always covered.

Webydo’s Knowledge Base Helps You Get Started And Going

As building a community had been a high priority from the beginning, Webydo was able to create an active, friendly following, willing to help you at any time. Webydo’s support staff is also available 24/7 and even helps you through difficulties via live chat.

An extensive video documentation educates you about all of the tool’s aspects. For direct requests or individual problems, there are feedback forms, but also the old reliable phone line available to you. You can also suggest new features, report bugs, or upvote new features in the roadmap.

In any case, you’ll never be left alone. Webydo doesn’t give you the impression that you’re just any random customer. Here, someone seems to be legitimately interested in improving your business.

Webydo and the Prices

At the latest, a look at Webydo’s pricing model will show you that this is not meant for the average consumer. Even the smallest package includes CMS and hosting for ten websites when used by one designer. The billing system is also included in the plan. With annual payment, you’ll pay 75 USD a month. Starting with the team account for 150 USD, aside from thirty websites, the above-mentioned white-labelling is possible. Find other plans with higher limits on this site.

At this point, you’ll realize that choosing Webydo is not like choosing other tools. Webydo represents the aspiration to fully support you in your design business, making it an all-or-nothing decision.

Of course, this is not easy to decide, and should always be looked at individually. However, there is nothing wrong with the feature set. If you don’t know Webydo, you should definitely give it a try.

You know rich text editors. They turn simple text fields into some type of text processing environment. Each WordPress blogger uses one, the TinyMCE, which is still standard in the world’s most popular CMS. Quill is a more advanced member of the same species.

Quill’s Project Website. (Screenshot: Dr. Web)

Quill 1.0: Open Source and Independent

After about two years, the open source project Quill has finally made it to the stable version 1.0. After this long development time, one of the positive results is the excellent documentation. Smaller and younger projects can barely keep up with that. Good documentation is crucial, especially in the open source area, as it is a common thing that previously very active contributors suddenly lose interest in the project and abandon it.

Quill is a JavaScript solution without any other dependencies, but with its own API. All you need to be able to efficiently work with Quill is located in the JavaScript file, which you integrate into your documents as usual.

How to Add Quill to Your Web App

To equip an element with Quill’s abilities, add the following into your HTML:

The Small Bit of Code on the Left Allows for the Result on the Right (and a Lot More). (Screenshot: Dr. Web)

As you can already see in the JavaScript source code, it is possible to modularly adjust Quill to the contained element the way you consider to be right. The individual function modules are integrated into the UI with speaking names. This way, your users get the option to format text in bold only if you added bold to the scope of functions.

Quill: Flexible Due to Its Own API

An API lets you create further function modules depending on your needs, and seamlessly integrate them into the UI of Quill. Maybe your web app has to be able to gather CAD drawings, or whatever. Generally, Quill does not need configuration. It works out-of-the-box just fine for most application cases.

Aside from expansion modules for features that Quill doesn’t provide, you are also able to replace some of Quill’s functions with your own, if the given ones are not sufficient. You should set up all modules as separate JavaScript files, but it is also possible to directly add them to Quill, although this isn’t advisable when keeping simple updates in mind.

The option to expand or alter the feature scope of the editor is possible due to one of Quill’s biggest unique characteristics; the DOM abstraction level Parchment. In the Quill blog, you’ll find a detailed presentation of the abilities of Parchment. Learn how you could recreate the UI of the popular publication platform Medium.

You’ll get a good feeling for the modern tool’s flexibility when looking around on the project page’s interactive playground, or by using Codepen.

The developers value the assessment that Quill is very consistent over all platforms, and always works the same way, even being fully functional on tablets and smartphones, as well as solely creating standard HTML. The entire input and output work via JSON.

Quill: Availability and License

Quill is available for the integration into your website via download, but it is also possible to embed it via a CDN ran on Amazon Cloudfront. The source code is available on Github. As it is an open source project, there are no limitations regarding using it. Thus, you can even utilize Quill for commercial projects under the BSD license.

Content managements systems are an essential part of modern web development. Depending on the system, the installation and configuration can be more or less extensive and time-consuming. Especially with smaller projects, effort is often in no relation to utility, which is why these often end up as a static website instead. Surreal CMS allows you to add almost all features of a content management system to any finished static website, without much effort and while being easy to use.

Find CMS Bliss Via FTP

The principle of Surreal CMS is as simple as it gets: After registration, add an existing, static website by entering its FTP credentials, and choosing the folder in which the website’s files are stored.

Entering the FTP Access Information

Apart from regular FTP protocol, SFTP and FTPS are supported as well. Access to Amazon S3 is also possible. This is useful for everyone that hosts on Amazon’s cloud storage. Afterwards, Surreal CMS gives you access to all files. On a list, you can choose which of the HTML documents you want to make editable.

Defining Editable Areas

To prevent that all content of an HTML document can be altered, you need to define editable areas. To do so, the class “editable” will be added to all elements that you want the user to be able to edit. In Surreal CMS’ rich text editor, you will then be able to alter these areas. For example, when making a container element like “<article>” editable, you can add headlines, lists, and text, as well as images.

Managing your Website in Surreal CMS

However, you can also make block elements like “<h1>” or “<p>” editable. In this case, you can only alter the elements’ contents, but you can’t add any further block elements.

In any case, the formatting of the content is adapted from your website. Thus, headlines and other content is displayed in the editor in the same way it is displayed on the website.

The class “uneditable” allows you to choose certain areas within an editable area that are not supposed to be editable. The class “editable-text” also gives you the option to restrict the editing of content to pure text. Instead of the rich text editor, a simple input field is then displayed.

Editing Content, Adding Media

As mentioned before, an extensive rich text editor that can be used to edit text in a similar fashion to other content management systems, is available. Headlines, lists, charts, as well as bold and italic formattings are supported.

Rich Text Editor

Of course, you can also add links and images. Surreal CMS provides file management, which you can use to upload images, documents, and other media, like videos, and implement them into the website. While doing that, you can set a default folder, in which e.g. all images will be stored automatically.

On integrating images into a website, you can scale them freely. Surreal CMS will create accordingly scaled files. The class “editable gallery” enables you to define an area for an image gallery. Here, you add as many images as you want to, which will open a full-size image when clicked. The size of the thumbnails is defined by additional data attributes.

Simple Upload and Integration of Images

The whole thing also works in combination with popular JavaScript galleries such as Lightbox or Fancybox.

HTML5 videos are also supported. Here, choose up to two different formats and a preview image. Surreal CMS takes care of the markup of the respective source code.

Creating Templates

Like every proper content management system, Surreal CMS doesn’t only offer the editing of existing sites, but also the creation of new ones. To transfer existing layouts to new sites, you create templates.

Template Creation

These are not just simple HTML documents in which the website’s layout is defined plus editable areas. You can save multiple templates and choose one of them for each new site.

When templates are changed afterwards, this doesn’t affect the websites on which these templates have already been applied to. That’s because Surreal CMS generates static HTML documents on the base of the template, which will exist independently from the template after its creation.

Including Files

In contrast to other content management systems, Surreal CMS doesn’t create a menu automatically. However, when your server, or provider supports PHP, you can integrate fixed content such as navigation, header, and footer via PHP or SSI.

Having your HTML files run through the PHP parser – can be set via “.htaccess” -, you can easily integrate PHP files via “include()”. This eases the handling of templates, as you only need to define the PHP inclusions, and the design is identical on all sites, even when altering the included files later on.

User and Right Management

Creating users and distributing rights is just as easy as the editing of content. To create a user, assign a name and an email address. After that, choose a website and determine the pages the user will gain access to.

User and Right Management

You can also choose which rights a user will receive, for each user separately. There’s a list on which you decide whether a user may create pages, edit or delete them, and whether pages made by him will be published or not.

You can also allow or ban the uploading of files as well as the integration of source code. When you created users and distributed all rights, Surreal CMS automatically sends them a welcome mail with the access information.

You can choose the content of the welcome mail yourself, using a template. This allows you to send a tailored mail with the access information to your customers, for example.

Simple Recovery Thanks to Revisions

Surreal CMS sets up server-side revisions of altered content. This way, you can quickly recover original content.

Custom Branding and Costs

Surreal CMS is mainly targeted to web designers and developers that want to offer a simple CMS to their customers. Thus, you can customize the appearance of the backend. Replace the logo with your own, or change the backend’s color. You could even place your own support area.

Custom Branding is Possible

As Surreal CMS runs via the domain “edit-content.com”, it will not be evident that a third-party system is being used. This allows you to adjust everything to fit you and your company, improving customer retention.

A two-weeks trial access is provided, allowing you to test Surreal CMS. After that, you’ll need to pay 10 dollars a month for up to five websites to manage. In total, there are seven plans. For 100 dollars a month, an unlimited amount of web projects is available.

Conclusion

Surreal CMS connects the advantages of classic content management systems with the advantages of static websites. You are entirely free when it comes to design and technology. You are not limited by any restrictions that come with other CM systems, and you also don’t need to deal with template creation in WordPress, or TYPO3’s Typoscript configuration.

But the two biggest advantages of Surreal CMS are, for one, that you can easily add a content management system to a static website. This is done quickly and in a totally uncomplicated way. Especially for existing websites that you are supposed to make editable on customer request, Surreal CMS is something you should definitely give a go.

The second advantage is, that the website also runs without Surreal CMS. If you ever decide to forgo Surreal CMS, your website will keep running as usual. This doesn’t work with other content management systems or homepage building kits.

Talking about homepage building kits: Surreal CMS is not directed to ambitioned amateurs that don’t have a budget for the outsourcing of their website designs. Surreal CMS is clearly directed towards designers that want or need to dynamize their customer’s websites.

With the advent of WordPress 4.4 last year in December, we saw the inclusion of the first half of REST API in the WordPress Core, and the rest of it is expected to be with us in the upcoming major release of WordPress.

That said, REST API has been around us in the WordPress world for quite a while, especially by means of the REST API plugin. The community is abuzz with all talks about how important REST API will soon be for WordPress development, and how it is going to change the way developers code and interact with WP.

So, how is REST API going to affect the WordPress users and developers, and what exactly will we be able to accomplish using it? We will find the answer to this question in this article.

How Will REST API Affect WordPress Developers?

The Rise of JavaScript

Matt Mullenweg made it pretty clear during his State of the Word 2015 address when he declared: “Learn JavaScript, deeply!”

With REST API in WordPress, the role of JavaScript in WordPress development will be increased manifolds as HTTP requests and other JSON queries will make good use of JS.

With Node.js rising in usage, coupled with the likes of AngularJS, React and Backbone.js, JavaScript surely is a popular entity on the web and as such, its rising importance in the world of WordPress development is a welcome note.

What About PHP?

WordPress is coded in PHP, so it is pretty obvious that the role of PHP cannot be diminished. However, with the rising influence of JavaScript, how will PHP keep up?

Well, PHP powers 80% of the web, so in all likelihood, there is hardly much that can be affected. But all said and done, REST API will actually influence PHP in an ostensible manner: now, for your third-party app to interact with WordPress, the app does not need to be in PHP anymore, as REST API can allow for cross-platform interaction between applications, which brings us to our next point.

Cross-Platform Interaction

REST API is more of an architectural style rather than a systems protocol. As such, it can be implemented on any platform that has been built or coded via any script or language. Thus, REST API can be used by an application that is built using Ruby on Rails, or by a plugin coded in PHP, or by software written in C#.

What this means is that even those applications and platforms can interact with and share data with WordPress that are otherwise not built using WordPress, or even PHP for that matter. So we can have websites and applications that are running in Python sharing data with WordPress sites, and vice versa.

The Backend? Who Needs it Now?

If you have been following the happenings in the WordPress community of late, you might have already heard of Calypso, or the desktop apps for WordPress.com that you can install on your computer and use to manage your blogs and websites (on WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress sites running Jetpack) right from your desktop, without having to log into the WordPress admin panel.

Thus, such features add a whole new dimension to remote management of your website: you can actively monitor and manage your websites without having to log in at all — create new posts and pages, moderate comments, edit and modify data, and so on.

Furthermore, you can even build apps that work atop WordPress without actually having to force the users to log in to WordPress.

Mobile Support

Much like desktop apps, REST API also adds a new dimension to mobile development vis a vis WordPress. Shortly, as REST API becomes better integrated and included within WordPress, you can expect a whole new array and fleet of mobile applications and better support for mobile devices.

Of course, WordPress.com does have its mobile app that also lets you administer Jetpack-powered self-hosted websites. And with REST API, you can expect more such applications that help you remotely manage and access your sites.

Conclusion

As you can see, REST API is here not just to change the way our plugins and themes interact with WordPress, but also to overhaul and modify the manner in which web development works currently in the world of WordPress.

There is no dearth of great literature if you wish to learn how to master REST API with WordPress. For instance, here is a wonderful overview of what REST API exactly is:

Similarly, as an existing WordPress developer, it might be well worth the effort to start learning JavaScript and REST API, so that by the time REST API is fully integrated into WordPress, you are ready to accept new challenges and come up with new solutions. For that matter, Tuts+ have an ongoing series about WordPress REST API.

Are you an active WordPress developer? How excited are you about REST API and what impact do you think it will have in the world of WordPress development? Share your views and thoughts in the comments below!

There is no dearth of tools and Content Management Systems out there to help you build your websites. And speaking of Content Management Systems, web-based CMSs hold a particular place, only because they offer a set of features and services that are unique to their niche. In this post, we will be taking a look at one such web CMS: LightCMS.

LightCMS: A Hosted Solution For Creating Websites

What is LightCMS?

LightCMS is a Content Management Software that you can use to build websites in a simple and intuitive interface. It can be used to power any type of site, be it a blog, an eCommerce store, or an online portfolio.

However, just because LightCMS focuses on ease of use, it doesn’t mean it lacks in features or does not allow you to customize your design properly. Everything you build with LightCMS is fully responsive and mobile-friendly.

But that is not all. LightCMS offers a full set of custom templates that you can choose and configure to suit your needs. And if that does not work for you, for advanced users, LightCMS also offers the ability to tweak the code in HTML, CSS or JavaScript, thereby allowing you to truly customize your website as per your requirements. For that purpose, LightCMS has an inbuilt code editor.

Regarding working, you can add content and elements to your pages within minutes using the point-and-click interface of LightCMS. It offers drag and drop, so you can edit directly on the front-end, and also preview your changes as you go along. LightCMS supports all that you might need to display on your site: images, media, blog posts, photo galleries, custom forms, and a lot more!

If you are looking to set up an eCommerce store, LightCMS has specialized tools and features to help you out. You can quickly add products to your eCommerce store, and sell any combination of physical or digital goods right from your store. LightCMS also offers a secure shopping cart and checkout workflow, in addition to handling payments and letting you communicate with your customers from within the CMS interface.

And before you ask, LightCMS comes with fantastic SEO features. It offers automated XML sitemaps, Open Graph metadata and tags, keyword-rich URLs, 301 redirects, robots.txt files as well as analytics and statistics for your website. You can integrate Google Analytics to help you assess the growth and performance of your site.

As LightCMS is a hosted CMS, it takes away the hassle and tension of web hosting from you. Your content is stored on secure and redundant cloud servers, with guaranteed uptime and scalable performance. You need not worry about any such thing as installation, upgrades or troubleshooting, as all of that is taken care of by LightCMS. Plus, irrespective of the amount of traffic you receive, you will not be charged extra, nor will your website be penalized if you get a sudden spike in traffic. So yes, you can relax and stay away from worries related to web hosting, and focus on the creation and management of your website.

Pricing

LightCMS offers several different payment plans that start at $19 per month and go up to $99 per month for an unlimited plan. The actual monthly cost is dependent upon the number of pages, storage and products each individual needs.

All plans offer all the standard features such as galleries, blogs, form builders, calendars, etc. Also, you get SEO features, premium hosting, ability to use custom domains, and all the other offerings of LightCMS.

Note that if you are creating a blog, your blog posts will not count against the page limits.

Conclusion

LightCMS is a versatile tool that can be used to put together websites within minutes. While the trend of late is for self-hosted CMSs such as WordPress; hosted Content Management Systems have a market and target audience of their own, and this is where LightCMS fits in.

If, for example, you are looking to quickly get online, and setup your online store or website within minutes, without having to deal with the hassles of web hosting or website maintenance such as software updates and security issues, LightCMS is very easily your best bet for this purpose! It takes care of web hosting, software maintenance, and updates as well as all other tasks, and allows you to focus on the creation of your website.

On the other hand, what if you are a web developer? Is LightCMS meant for you? Should you not go for something that gives you absolute freedom, and can be run on your own server?

LightCMS has a particular plan meant exclusively for developers. You sign up for LightCMS and are given the ability to resell LightCMS to create websites for your clients. You can set up your own pricing model, and among other things, LightCMS grants you SFTP access to get going quickly. More importantly, you do not have to deal with annoying tasks such as upgrades, server issues, etc. All of that is taken care of by LightCMS.

As a developer, you can work with HTML and CSS in LightCMS, and even modify the source code if you have a custom design in mind. LightCMS also handles automated client billing for you, leaving you with more time to focus on actual web development.

As such, LightCMS is an ideal pick if you are looking for a hosted solution that does not cost a fortune, and at the same time, gives you ample features and tools to build websites without having to worry about upgrades and web hosting. More importantly, LightCMS does not lock you down to any proprietary code or language either — everything is in HTML or CSS, and you can play with the source code as well. So you have the freedom of doing things your way when working with LightCMS.

What do you think of LightCMS? Will you be giving it a spin anytime soon? Share your views in the comments below!

Today I want to introduce you to Codester. Codester is a brand-new marketplace for developers and designers. Here you can buy code snippets, scripts, themes, plugins and more to brush up your next big or small project. Using premade components saves you time and – as we all know – time is money. So take the five minutes it takes to read the following article.

Codester: a Quick Walkthrough

Script directories were big at the end of the Nineties and the beginning of the new millennium. I remember the most prominent of them, HotScripts.com, well. Whatever task you were looking to accomplish, HotScripts was the place to go. Then they were bought by some professional website buyer and though they still exist today have since gone into a hiatus. Don’t go there. It would destroy your nostalgic memories of days gone by.

I haven’t run across a similar service during the past decade. While there is no shortage when it comes to marketplaces for designers, developers face a different truth. In summer of this year, a small group of people started a solution to this problem. Welcome, Codester.com, a fast-growing worthy successor to the dinosaur I mentioned earlier.

Codester targets designers and developers alike. But all the assets they offer have a development related touch, at least as of now. Take their Graphics section as an example. They provide User Interfaces, Game Assets and Product Mockups alongside Icons and Logos there. This is not a nicey dribbbly design lover’s toy box. This is about getting the job done. Don’t blame them for not having too many offerings right now. They have just started out.

If you really want to get your hands dirty, dig into the Scripts & Code section, where you will find solutions in PHP, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, Java, C, C++, C#, and VB.Net. Today only the PHP category has a namable amount of scripts on offer, but the people behind Codester are actively working to grow the portfolio quickly.

If you are an app developer make sure to visit the respective Mobile Apps section and find yourself the one code snippet for iOS, Android, Unity, Corona or Titanium that you have been searching for the last five nights through.

These days separate scripts are still sought after, yet the greater demand comes from developers in the CMS reign. It is certainly possible to alter any given script to work with any given script. Yet it is more efficient to directly choose a script module, plugin, extension or whatever the naming conventions with your CMS are and get it to work in the environment it was made for.

Codester relates to that and offers a variety of plugins for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Prestashop, osCommerce, X-Cart and Opencart. Themes, though more design-related, mix form and function to ultimately deliver the intended user experience. Thus, it is only consequent that Codester has established a separate section with themes available for WordPress, Magento, Joomla, Drupal, Prestashop, Opencart, Muse, Tumblr and Ghost as well as plain HTML templates for those without a CMS in mind.

Codester: Finding Files

Codester is built with growth in mind. As of now you can indeed just browse the main sections and the categories. There is not a single one that couldn’t be scrolled through in a matter of minutes. Should the growth continue at its current pace, this will entirely change in a matter of a few months. The team has forethought that and built the service in a way that it will still be easy to find the tool you need even with thousands of scripts, themes or whatever to filter.

The most obvious way to search for a solution on Codester is using the top search bar from the landing page. Enter your search phrase and see what Codester comes up with. This is not very efficient, however, should you already be able to narrow down your parameters a little which will most certainly be the case with a typical development project. Codester does not work with additional tags to group related content from different categories in a meaningful way, at least not from the search bar.

So the appropriate way to approach the content is by browsing the categories. Once you entered any given category, its content will be displayed in a grid overview. From the grid, you can open the detail page of each element for more information. The most crucial info, however, is given directly from the grid. You can see the price, a preview image, a short description and the target platform. Videos and live previews are also accessible from the grid, so you can quickly narrow down your choice to the one or two offerings that really interest you in the end.

After a click on the preview of the tool the detail page opens. The detail page deserves its name. You will get all the information possible from here. Descriptions are elaborate; screenshots are a dime a dozen. It is here where you find a box with additional tags attached to the tool. Clicking any of the tags creates another grid showing all the equally tagged products from all over Codester’s portfolio.

The detail page is divided into four segments with the overview being the default view after opening the page. There are tabs for Reviews, Support and FAQ. This support tab houses a direct support option much like a comment area in a CMS. Anyone with an account can ask questions here while a review can only be published by an actual buyer of the product to be reviewed. FAQ answer the most common questions to relieve the support area.

Share buttons allow you to spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn or via email. An affiliate program is open to anyone and offers 10 percent commission for each referred buyer.

Codester’s Licenses

Prices vary largely but licenses do not. With each item, you have the option to choose the Regular or the Extended license. The Regular license is the cheaper choice allowing you to use the purchase in one project, no matter whether it is private, commercial or for a client. The Extended license allows you the same but for unlimited projects. You are not allowed to sell the items as such, but that should be self-explanatory anyway.

Codester: Sell Your Work

As you’d expect from a marketplace Codester certainly does not provide the elements by themselves but works as a middle man for those skilled developers and designers who want to earn a solid dollar by selling their scripts, plugins, themes, source codes to the world. And doing so is easy.

Codester has very few, very fair conditions for sellers. Sellers earn 70 percent of each purchase flat. There are no minimum amounts of sales, no minimum amounts of money before you can request a payout, nothing. Payment is made via PayPal or Wire at the end of each month without any additional fees or other hooks and eyes.

Codester: Build Your Own Opinion

I like the project. It is a well-designed, thoroughly crafted marketplace environment with a focus on development work and that’s a good thing in itself. Codester still needs a lot more involvement from the community, be it in the way of more offerings in the diverse categories or more interaction on the already existing offerings. That’s where you come into play. Check out Codester and build your own opinion. Support it if you like it.

A website without an integration of multiple social media channels is hard to imagine nowadays. Facebook and Twitter offer interfaces and plugins that allow users to integrate profiles and pages into their own website. Furthermore, there is a number of services that incorporate a multitude of social media channels at once without a lot of effort. The service neosmart STREAM is one of them. However, it is not a typical cloud service, but a solution for self-hosting.

Downloading and Installing the Package

One thing in advance: Neosmart Stream is available as a free and a paid version. In this article, we will only show you features that work with the free variant already. This is how to do it:

First, the round about 1,5 megabytes large ZIP archive has to be downloaded, unzipped and uploaded to your web space. The service requires PHP starting from version 5.3 as well as the library cURL. Both is included in most hosting plans which means that, as a rule, the service can be used without any preparation in advance. Upon first access from the browser, some rights have to be adjusted, and an admin password needs to be set for administration.

Afterwards, you will find an interface similar to a content management system from which you can then access different social networks. Now you got the opportunity to integrate posts from Facebook and Twitter into your website.

Accessing Facebook and Twitter Posts

No knowledge of the respective APIs of Facebook and Twitter is needed to integrate the two networks via net smart STREAM. To access a Facebook page, you only need to enter the ID or the name of the page. Following that, you only transfer a so-called access token. You can receive it by granting neosmart STREAM access to your account in the Facebook app.

Setting up the Channels

Afterwards, you decide how many Facebook posts should be pulled over into your website and if only your posts or also other people’s ramblings should be displayed. Via a live preview you can directly see the results.

The Twitter integration works similarly. First, however, a Twitter app has to be set up to gain access to the tweets on your profile. Access tokens and access secrets as well as consumer key and tokens then need to be integrated into neosmart STREAM through the created Twitter app. Successful connection to the network is signalised by a status display.

Adjusting the Appearance via Themes

The service comes with a bunch of themes that allow you to alter the appearance of your articles the way you desire. A live preview instantly shows you how your profile and page posts will be displayed.Choosing a Theme

In total, there are five free themes available. These are activated via a simple click. If you like it more of your own style, you can create a personal theme from scratch as well. A guide to what files a theme needs to contain and how it is designed is included in the documentation. Of course, you can also choose one of the existing themes as a starting point for your own. Since the entire service is hosted by you, you have access to all files, and thus, you can adjust them the way you want to.

Integrating Social Media Plugins

Once you connected the social networks to neosmart STREAM and chose a theme or designed the appearance, you can now embed the plugin in your website. There are several options available. The most common will be the standard option to integrate the plugin via Iframe. The measurements are transferred via the <iframe> element. The content itself adapts accordingly.Preview

Alternatively, you can add the plugin via PHP. To do so, all you need to do is include a couple lines of PHP script into the web project. A requirement is, of course, that you set up the read-write permissions correctly to be able to access the index that contains the neosmart STREAM files via PHP.

Creating an Individual Channel

When Facebook and Twitter aren’t enough, you can also set up a personal channel. To do so, you need to enter a so-called NSS file as the URL for your new channel. NSS is an XML-based format that is similar to the RSS format. Via NSS you can transfer articles to the service.

This way, you edit the content directly in that file and then send it to your website via the neosmart STREAM plugin.

Free and Paid Plan

The neosmart STREAM service with all the above-shown features is free. The paid plan costs 99 Euro per website and contains a couple more features. For example, you can integrate Facebook features such as the like button, or Twitter’s follow and tweet buttons.

Also, the logo of the service is not displayed in the paid version. In the free version, it stays visible in the widget created by the plugin.

Conclusion

neosmart STREAM is easy to use and can be set up quickly. Those who don’t design and program a lot themselves and who don’t want to deal with Facebook and Twitter’s APIs will find a proper solution here. By the way, there is also a plugin for WordPress users to further enhance the use of the service in world’s most popular CMS.

(dpe)

]]>No Ordinary Website Builder: Rukzuk Stands Out from the Crowdhttps://www.noupe.com/design/no-ordinary-website-builder-rukzuk-stands-out-from-the-crowd-88039.html
https://www.noupe.com/design/no-ordinary-website-builder-rukzuk-stands-out-from-the-crowd-88039.html#commentsTue, 03 Feb 2015 13:00:58 +0000http://www.noupe.com/?p=88039Rukzuk out of Konstanz, Germany has come on the site-building scene and wants a piece of the ever-growing pie. To that end, Rukzuk doesn’t aim directly at individuals who want to build their own website. Instead, Rukzuk seeks to make a name for itself as a serious tool for professional web designers. Competition in this segment is certainly scarcer, but it exists nevertheless. We’ve put Rukzuk under the microscope.

Rukzuk: Conceived for the Needs of Seitenbau GmbH

Rukzuk began life as an internal toolkit of Konstanz-based agency Seitenbau GmbH, where early versions of the software were already crafting websites for clients like Deutsche Telekom. Rukzuk was honed over years of development, proving its mettle in day-to-day work until it grew into a stand-alone brand.

That’s all very confidence-inspiring; perhaps this might be a product that truly can meet all the demands of a web designer. So just what are the typical problems encountered in a typical project?

The project needs to be designed. The project will eventually need more features. The project almost always needs a CMS. Until now, the designer would design in Photoshop with subsequent conversion into HTML/CSS, and the developer would develop additional features and tailor everything to the chosen CMS.

With Rukzuk, that’s no longer necessary. Rukzuk allows the designer to design without coding knowledge while empowering the developer to develop necessary function modules without worrying about the design. And Rukzuk likewise comes with a CMS. It sounds like the complete package because it is the complete package.

Rukzuk in full screen mode: it’s easy to forget that it’s an online site builder

All that’s missing are business-centric elements (customer relationship management, accounting, etc.) that could make Rukzuk self-sufficient in running a business. That shouldn’t be taken as criticism, however, as Rukzuk makes no such claims for itself to even try to offer such a full-service solution.

There are many differences between Rukzuk and competitors. The seamless marriage of a visual design interface and full-fledged CMS is unmatched. Designing custom modules is a rare enough treat; implementing a proper CMS is more precious still. Modules in Rukzuk-speak are small building blocks for the necessary components of a website: slideshows, galleries, contact forms, and so on. They’re created according to the conventions of Rukzuk’s PHP and JavaScript APIs. Rukzuk comes with around 50 modules for the most important elements of a website.

Made with Rukzuk: an example of a website built with Rukzuk

Unique Selling Point: You Control How You Host

If you’ve already worked with other website builders, you’ll know that, as a rule, the websites you create are also hosted by the same service provider. In other words, you don’t need any additional webspace. Many site builders work directly with registrars to sell you the desired domain. Most competitors make it impossible to circumvent this step: you have to host your website through them.

Rukzuk differs in a few respects. Like other services, Rukzuk offers a subdomain as standard, in the following scheme: http://<123-456>.zuk.io. This is entirely sufficient for development but can be problematic when going live.

Rukzuk: extensive properties allow for fine-tuning, shown here with the alternative sidebar for those with enough screen space

Alternately, you can connect Rukzuk to existing domains: another common option. You change the CNAME or A record through your domain provider and pass along the DNS inquiry to Rukzuk.

What I haven’t yet seen elsewhere is the third option. It entails hosting the website through a third-party. This can either be done automatically by pasting the FTP credentials into Rukzuk or manually by downloading and then uploading the pertinent files to your webspace. The only requirement is that the host supports PHP 5.3 or later, which is a given for any well-known provider.

With this third option, Rukzuk deals a swift blow to a major criticism leveled against website builders. Some people dismiss site builders based on their distrust of service providers to store the websites without at least the possibility of backing up locally. This is to say nothing of the fundamental hole in that argument: that every provider can fail economically and thus break totally.

The web presence you create with Rukzuk will therefore live on if you decide to take your site elsewhere, even if Rukzuk should go down for reasons either technical, economic, or anything else.

Made with Rukzuk: another example of a website made with Rukzuk

Rukzuk: Pricing, Plans, Conventions

Unlike some other services, Rukzuk offers no free plan. For perfectly understandable reasons, publishing for nothing is not a sustainable model for success.

Despite that, you don’t need to break out your wallet right off the bat. Rather, you can vet Rukzuk’s full feature set to your heart’s content. There is no time limit. There’s only one catch: as soon as you want to publish your website and make it accessible to everyone, you’ll need one of the paid subscriptions.

And despite the fact that Rukzuk is geared first and foremost toward agencies and independent designers, its developers nonetheless offer a plan called "Rukzuk One". For 12/15 Euro per month (for annual/monthly payment) you get one project and one live website. It’s their appeal to the customer of classic website builders: the ambitious website owner who either cannot or doesn’t want to hire a designer.

Made with Rukzuk: there are virtually no barriers to your creativity

The "Rukzuk Freelancer" plan is geared towards the freelance designer, enabling ten projects and three live websites for 19/25 Euro per month (annually/monthly).

"Rukzuk Studio" is marketed toward smaller design teams and offers the ability to create custom modules and manage 20 projects with 10 live websites. For that you need to pony up 49/69 Euros per month.

The creators claim that the future will bring the "Rukzuk Agency" plan. It will offer customizable modules and 50 projects with 30 live sites. Specific to this this plan is co-branding the back-end, i.e. offering the customer a white-label variant that obscures Rukzuk as the service provider. This plan will cost a pretty 259/299 Euro per month.

But what if 30 websites aren’t enough? Upon request, Rukzuk will discuss individual enterprise plans.

In all fairness, competitors also have similar restrictions, and must either turn down larger contracts or specifically tailor larger plans. In the international arena, Rukzuk’s pricing is very competitive and doesn’t need to hide in shame.

Freelancers and agencies will be happy to hear that complete projects can be transferred over to clients. The client will receive an invoice from Rukzuk for the operation of the website and and the running costs don’t need to be continuously calculated.

Rukzuk scores points in our part of the world for offering the complete product in German. The client should be thrilled not to have to grapple with text in a foreign language (English, ordinarily). So too is the editor itself provided entirely in German.

By default, Rukzuk matches the system language of the browser in use, so if your browser is set to English, Rukzuk will display in English. The language can also be manually set, which is useful if, for example, you want to keep your browser in German but want to use Rukzuk in English because of coding terminology.

Rukzuk: The Editor – The Beating Heart of the Service

When you register (which requires no payment information) you’ll be greeted with a dialogue box from which you can initiate a new project or open and edit an existing one.

Click "New Project" and you can choose from eight completely professional templates, two wireframes, or a completely blank project. Newcomers should opt for a full-fledged template to acquaint themselves with modules and other site elements.

After you’ve made your decision, the editor proper opens, which, primarily for its coloration, is reminiscent of the Adobe’s Creative Cloud. It soon becomes clear upon closer inspection that Rukzuk follows an entirely different control concept.

Rukzuk’s module tree: the fulcrum of your designs

In contrast to Creative Cloud and other services, Rukzuk has a WYSIWYG interface, though it’s not 100% drag and drop. To be sure, design elements can in part be selected and inserted with the mouse. Parameters and options are defined by values and sliders. Exceptions like the grid module prove the rule.

The main editor window is not the actual layout, but rather the sidebar tree on the left which houses many nesting menus. Take a look at the dense list with its myriad expansions and clarity may not be the first word that comes to mind. The level of detail in the editing is far more granular than in other services.

Building a site looks easy at first, but proves more complicated by the end:

As you can see in the video, Rukzuk is an extremely powerful tool. With the possibility of integrating external components such as CSS or HTML, the flexibility knows no bounds. Other systems are far more constraining. The creation of custom modules in PHP and JavaScript takes things a step further still.

Rukzuk’s module tree can be expanded with a simple selection; more than 50 modules are included

Rukzuk facilitates the learning process with a button at the top right corner of the browser window labeled "First Steps". Clicking it produces an overlay providing charming and helpful tutorials for beginners without ever leaving the editor.

Rukzuk supports responsive design with breakpoints. Via the breakpoint triggers on the right side of the screen you select different screen widths for various devices. The design can then be refined in the left sidebar for various resolutions.

Designs are conveniently tested by generating a QR code that you open on a mobile device, giving you a preview of your layout. It’s simple and effective. As opposed to something like Webydo, the creators behind Rukzuk take great pride in the responsive design capabilities of their software, provided you want a fluid layout. Rukzuk’s modules have no fixed dimensions, but instead fluidly adapt to the conditions.

Rukzuk can implement fully responsive designs

Rukzuk: New Ground in the World of Site Builders

It’s surprisingly clear how Rukzuk’s operating concept deviates from established standards. Rukzuk certainly has a learning curve, and that’s not to be dismissed, but that’s not at all to say it doesn’t pay off. What’s important is being aware of this and making an informed decision. Nor should I conceal the fact that there are currently no comparable alternatives on the market, and even those with a slimmer feature set aren’t exactly learned in the blink of an eye.

To Rukzuk’s credit, it is a product that has ripened over years of steady development, proving its competence several times over. And it’s a German product, to boot. The creators valued the service so greatly that they spun the product off from Seitenbau GmbH as its own publicly held company.

Is Rukzuk for Me?

That’s something you need to decide for yourself. It depends heavily on where you are and where you’re heading. You should give Rukzuk a shot in any event so as to paint an informed picture. Here are some important considerations:

If you have no coding experience, i.e. purely a designer, then you’ll have to acclimate to a given product no matter what. Of course, it will be easier if the product isn’t completely alien to what you’re used to. On the other hand, what use is a more user-friendly tool if it doesn’t have the features you require?

If you’re a developer with a solid foundation in PHP and JavaScript, then Rukzuk may be of great use to you. Programming modules opens to the door to any functionality initially lacking, and you get a CMS delivered right to your door. If I were you, I’d be keen to keep a close eye on Rukzuk.

If you’re an ambitious website owner who wants to build and maintain your own site quickly and easily, then Rukzuk is also a solid choice. If you’re just looking for a sort of web flier for your dog-walking service, then there are other perfectly suitable alternatives on the market with gentler learning curves.

As a business owner you have to honestly appraise the abilities and needs of your employees and decide if Rukzuk should be your new primary tool. For one thing is clear: Rukzuk is too complex for only occasional use. If you’re in this circle, then I suggest taking the contender from Lake Constance out for a spin no matter what. Test it to your heart’s content. It’s not just some theoretically functional service that has limitations in professional applications: it’s software that has been put through its paces in the real world, honed through actual use, and it can do far more than meets the eye upon first glance.

Conclusion

I know of every site builder worth mentioning in the whole wide web; several I know like the back of my hand. None of them can match the breadth of capability Rukzuk boasts. If you’re already familiar with visual web-design software and have some coding knowledge, you’d be hard-pressed to find even a comparable service, let alone a better one. If on top of that you’re working on behalf of a German company, the complete German language support and the responsive and amenable developers are crucial factors.

I’ll gladly repeat what I’ve said several times: try Rukzuk yourself, but give yourself plenty of time for it. Like a good tea, Rukzuk needs to steep a bit. The system doesn’t bare its soul immediately, but when it does it sticks with you like a good song you just can’t get out of your head.

]]>https://www.noupe.com/design/no-ordinary-website-builder-rukzuk-stands-out-from-the-crowd-88039.html/feed4Blogging with Ease: Best Resources for Ghosthttps://www.noupe.com/development/cms/blogging-with-ease-best-resources-for-the-new-ghost-platform-80211.html
https://www.noupe.com/development/cms/blogging-with-ease-best-resources-for-the-new-ghost-platform-80211.html#commentsMon, 16 Dec 2013 07:30:21 +0000http://www.noupe.com/?p=80211Finally! A new blogging service that can compete with WordPress! It’s called Ghost and was just released this year on October 14. So far, it has proven to be exactly what the founder, John O’Nolan, envisioned – a simple, clean, easy, no-nonsense publishing platform for bloggers and writers. Yet more than just content creators are using Ghost. Some of the recently released themes work beautifully as a clean portfolio website for photographers and other artists. But an easy-to-use platform isn’t the only perk: Ghost is an open source platform, meaning that it is completely free. And so are many of the themes and resources.

Why a New Platform?

For years, John O’Nolan grew more and more frustrated at the lack of complex blogging systems, so he wrote a blog post late in 2012 and found out that many others were complaining of the same problem. In the past, WordPress used to be the go-to blogging platform, but as our own Sufyan bin Uzayr points out in his article “I Love You WordPress! But…” , “the speed and swift operation that WP was once known for, is continuously being sacrificed at the altar of each new release”.

Nolan wanted to create a new software program that brought speed and ease of use back to publishing online, so he started a project for Ghost on Kickstarter and raised more than enough capital to get Ghost started. Hannah Wolfe came on board as development lead, and a solution to the worldwide blogging problem came to fruition.

What Comes with Ghost?

Amazingly, Ghost is the full package. It is a software program that is fully responsive, so you can use it on any device. It also offers a full hosting platform that comes with any extras you may need, such as plugins, themes, and other extras only available through Ghost.org.

The dashboard puts all of your blog information in one spot, and by all, I mean everything – from traffic to social media to news feeds and content performance. And you can drag and drop to rearrange your dashboard exactly the way you want it to look.

Just like Dreamweaver, Ghost puts your markup on the left and the preview on the right. Now this is enough to make me as a writer do a happy dance. Writing in Dreamweaver, uploading to WordPress, and clicking back and forth between code and preview views is much too time-consuming. Ghost eliminates several steps in the writing process!

Best yet, Ghost allows you to fairly easily switch between themes. With WordPress, your content is lost if you change from theme to theme. But Ghost pushes for a hefty separation between HTML and JavaScript, which means that you should be able to upload a new theme and see your content flawlessly displayed in the new layout. I haven’t yet tried it, though, so be sure to share your experience (good or bad) with this in the comments below.

Have I Caught Your Attention?

Now, that I have perked your interest at least somewhat, you may want to check out some of the awesome resources for Ghost below. If you are simply looking for a theme to grab and start publishing on, then browse through some of the theme resources below. For those looking to learn the ins and outs of Ghost, you may want to take a look at some of the tips and tutorials as well. This way, whether you are building a theme for Ghost or have a client interested in using Ghost, you’ll more quickly become an expert in this new, super publishing platform. No matter your use for Ghost, you will find a beautiful, simple, straight-up publisher that won’t disappoint.

Themes

The Marketplace page on the Ghost website is one of the best places to look for themes, both free and premium. Or click on the Submit tab to upload your own theme. You could also go to ThemeForest’s Ghost themes compilation, but you may want to stick with only those that have been rated for now. ThemeSpectre is one of two new websites dedicated exclusively to Ghost themes and contains a handful of very nice themes. Polygonix is the other new Ghost theme site, and all of their themes are responsive, multi-browser compatible, and come with lifetime updates.

The following list will give you an idea of some of the themes available. Ghost themes have hardly been on the market long enough to garner too many reviews, but the following themes are ones that look pretty sharp. And a few of them have even received some excellent reviews even in their early stages:

Zvonko Biskup of CodeForest writes about his experience in creating a Ghost theme from the WordPress Twenty Thirteen theme, and reveals that his only hiccup was with the overriding of partial templates.

Final Thoughts…

Because Ghost is so new, lots is still being improved and added. However, if you want a simple CMS publishing system that looks polished and navigable and easy to use, then Ghost is certainly more than capable. If you have any extra tips or resources to add, please do so in the comments below, and let’s work together to keep Ghost alive!

(dpe)

]]>https://www.noupe.com/development/cms/blogging-with-ease-best-resources-for-the-new-ghost-platform-80211.html/feed7Pico: Free, File-based Content Management System for PHP-Developershttps://www.noupe.com/development/cms/pico-free-file-based-content-management-system-for-php-developers-80104.html
https://www.noupe.com/development/cms/pico-free-file-based-content-management-system-for-php-developers-80104.html#commentsMon, 02 Dec 2013 11:00:50 +0000http://www.noupe.com/?p=80104Pico is the name of a fairly new CMS, which doesn’t need any database connection at all. Its developer Gilbert Pellegrom calls the system "stupidly simple". I’d object and say, that this is only true for developers. If you are a PHP aficionado and like to write your posts using Markdown, Pico might just be the CMS for you.

Pico: No Database, Pages are Individual Files

Pico is a CMS, that will have a special group of people rejoice. Are you more of the bureaucratic type? Do you like to keep everything thoroughly sorted, each in its folder? Are you into PHP and Markdown? If so, great. If not, stay away from Pico and look at more established solutions, such as WordPress.

It’s not that Pico is a bad idea; don’t get me wrong. Pico requires PHP 5.2.4 and an Apache server with mod_rewrite. Creating a website with Pico definitely is simple. You do not have to install anything. A simple upload of the CMS and its folder structures to your web space is all it takes. The system is ready to serve.

Content is now produced using Markdown. Upload the creates files with the extension .md to the folder content. Naming a file index.md defines this file as the homepage of your site. Just like you’d do in HTML, putting more index.md into sub-folders leads to being able to reach an URL such as www.testpage.com/content/sub-folder/index.md by typing www.testpage.com/sub-folder/ .

As is common in Markdown, files are allowed to contain HTML code, too. HTML code will not be changed on parsing the Markdown file. Meta information is added to the header of each file like so:

This meta information can be read and processed from inside your theme. You might have asked yourself, how the connection between all of these individual and separate files is made. How do we add the glue that sticks it altogether? Where is the navigational part, our information architecture? This is where Pico’s theming comes into play.

Pico: Themes Based on the Twig Engine

There is no shortage of theming engines for PHP. Pico’s developer decided to go for a relatively fresh approach to theming, named Twig. Twig is created and maintained by Fabien Potencier, developer of the Symfony framework. Since version 2 Symfony uses Twig, too. Is it any wonder?

Twig’s way of installation is very similar to that of Pico. Download, unzip and re-upload top your webspace. Now embed Twig into your Markdown. Twig-based themes are raw text files, that might or might not carry the HTML extension. XML does the job, too.

If you’re into the customization of WordPress themes, Twig will not be a total stranger to you. Similar to WordPress theming, Twig embeds function calls into the theme. Twig knows variables, expressions and tags. A very basic Twig theme might look like this:

My Webpage

{{ a_variable }}

Quite a few of the better known IDEs, such as Sublime Text, Notepad++, Coda, Eclipse and more, support the Twig syntax and care for proper highlighting and auto-completion. Theming with Twig will not make PHP developers wonder, yet is no real alternative for the average Joe.

Pico as well as Twig comes at no cost. Both are freely available, Pico under MIT, Twig under BSD license.

Conclusion: The templating is the hardest part. Once done, Pico can be used by lesser skilled people. The only precondition is, that they are able to write Markdown and utilize an FTP client. I doubt, though, that there’ll be many average users feeling attracted to this mode of operation. A niche where Pico might succeed because all the preconditions are set, is the documentation of code projects. Are you writing large docs in Markdown anyway and are you looking for a decent way to present these docs without having to change too much, Pico is a valid choice. Otherwise, you’d need to be a die-hard fan to decide to go for it…

Related Links

]]>https://www.noupe.com/development/cms/pico-free-file-based-content-management-system-for-php-developers-80104.html/feed1Ionize CMS: Multilingual Developers Dreams Come Truehttps://www.noupe.com/development/cms/ionize-cms-multilingual-developers-dreams-come-true-78427.html
https://www.noupe.com/development/cms/ionize-cms-multilingual-developers-dreams-come-true-78427.html#commentsMon, 02 Sep 2013 06:30:10 +0000http://www.noupe.com/?p=78427Moving on with our series of CMS reviews, today we will be focusing on another developer-friendly Content Management System: Ionize CMS. Ionize CMS is a flexible open source CMS, that uses PhpStorm and CodeIgniter. Managed by Studio Partikule of France, it has its own module engine and can be used to power a wide plethora of websites. Also, Ionize CMS is equipped with the very liberal MIT license.

*Just in case you haven’t yet checked out the previous instalments, which discussed and reviewed multiple content management systems such as MODX, Concrete5, SilverStripe, FUEL CMS, ImpressPages CMS, Joomla! and several others, you can do so here.

Ionize CMS: This One Speaks Multiple Languages!

What is it About?

In terms of ease of use, Ionize supports a drag and drop model to help you arrange and manage your website. It also has some intuitive features such as email encoding and automatic hyperlink conversion.

The CMS has its own embedded template system, and makes extensive use of tags to arrange content. Also, Ionize CMS makes use of Extended Fields to add data to websites.

It can be extended via modules, and detailed instructions are provided in the documentation.

Perhaps the biggest USP of Ionize CMS is in its multilingual approach. Translating Ionize CMS is extremely easy.

Using Ionize CMS

Ionize CMS organizes itself under three broad folders, apart from its system folders: /files contains all your uploads such as images and videos, and can even be renamed if needed. /themes contains data about themes, and /install is the installation directory that you must delete after installing Ionize CMS.

Also, once you install Ionize CMS and get started with it, you will be required to customize and create the theme for your website. A theme in Ionize CMS, apart from Translations and Widgets, makes use of Assets, in the form of CSS, JavaScript and other media related content.

Next, in the Ionize CMS admin panel, head to Settings–>Theme… and under Options, select my_theme.

Perhaps the best part about using Ionize CMS is the sleek interface. It is still not a walk in the park for the average WordPress user, but I find the admin panel to be highly usable. By default, your Dashboard presents you with site traffic statistics, as well as nifty shortcuts to to Analytics, Translations, and others.

To your left, is the site management menu. However, let us focus on the admin panel’s navigation menu.

The Dashboard gives you a bird’s eye view, as expected.

Under Content, you can manage menus, create pages, articles, categories and even manage translations and media.

Adding languages to Ionize CMS is fairly simple. Simply head to Settings–>Languages, and off you go! You can add, remove and edit multiple languages as per your needs.

Similarly, adding an article is simple too. You can select a default language, and then proceed as you would in any other CMS.

Working with images? No problem again:

Additional Details

As already noted, the USP of Ionize CMS lies in its multilingual capabilities. If you are someone who needs to work with multiple languages, or have clients who require more than one language, Ionize CMS should definitely be on your lift of CMSs to check out! Not only is the CMS natively multilingual (requires no additional module for it), you can translate virtually any type of content across your website, and even add several languages side by side. Yes, no limits whatsoever!

The CMS itself has been translated into several languages so far, including German, French, Italian, and multiple others.

Add to it the fact that Ionize CMS has a CodeIgniter background and is modular, and you have a developer’s dream come true.

In terms of support, Ionize CMS has a forum with a good level of activity, along side support documentation. The documentation is divided into two sections. The first part is for end users, which basically deals with entry-level information such as how to add an article, how to add and remove links, working with Ionize CMS, and so on.

The second part of the documentation, however, deals with technical information at good length. It talks about installation, debugging, upgrades and migration, module creation, etc.

Analysis And Verdict

Version one of Ionize CMS has recently come out. Obviously, the project is still in its initial stages, and by the looks of it, it surely seems to be growing well.

Ionize CMS has all the requirements for success: CodeIgniter and multilingual aspect give the CMS a much-needed edge over others in its league. Plus, a thoroughly planned and well laid-out documentation further add to its merits. The documentation, however, can probably use a few video tutorials, etc. for added benefits.

Using Ionize CMS is not rocket science, and you will rarely feel lost when working with it. Go ahead, check out the demo! Also, you can catch Ionize CMS on Github here.

So, should you consider using Ionize CMS?

The answer to the above question is affirmative, if:

You are a coder or developer.

You’re looking for a multilingual and simple CMS.

You need something with a CodeIgniter base.

You need a modular and flexible CMS.

And the answer should be negative, if:

You need an “out of box” solution, with ready to use templates, themes, plugins, etc.

Coding? What coding?

You are happy with your current CMS — if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!

What do you think of Ionize CMS? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

]]>https://www.noupe.com/development/cms/ionize-cms-multilingual-developers-dreams-come-true-78427.html/feed4Full Throttle: Rapid Development with CodeIgniter and FUEL CMShttps://www.noupe.com/development/cms/full-throttle-rapid-development-with-codeigniter-and-fuel-cms-78371.html
https://www.noupe.com/development/cms/full-throttle-rapid-development-with-codeigniter-and-fuel-cms-78371.html#commentsWed, 28 Aug 2013 06:30:19 +0000http://www.noupe.com/?p=78371In the last two installations of my CMS review articles, I had focused on CMSs such as ImpressPages and CouchCMS that catered primarily to designers or end users, that is, folks who are not developers. In order to have a balance of power, we shall now shift our attention towards a Content Management System that is entirely meant for web developers and coders. In the following article, I will be taking a closer look at FUEL CMS, a modular-based framework and Content Management System.

Which one is more powerful? FUEL CMS or this Mustang? Well, …

Introduction to FUEL CMS

Here is how FUEL CMS describes itself:

“It’s developed on the popular CodeIgniter PHP web framework and allows you to create your models, views and controllers like normal and only use the CMS part when and if you need it.”

Basically, FUEL CMS is a flexible and developer-friendly CMS that comes with an Apache 2 license. Among other things, it features WYSIWYG editors — not one, but two. You can choose between CKEditor and markItUp!.

You can implement site-wide validation, create custom modules, associate variables, and so on. Its code library features module capabilities, menu builders and other objects; we shall return to the code library and other details later in this article. Also, for your clients, FUEL CMS offers inline editing, cron jobs, support for third-party applications, and several other features.

Using FUEL CMS

Sadly, there is no automated installer as of now. I will try to enumerate the basic steps that you need to follow in order to get FUEL CMS up and running on your server (I am assuming that you are comfortable setting up CodeIgniter websites).

In order to install FUEL CMS, first download the package, and then upload it on your server in a web-accessible folder. However, ensure that /data_backup, /install and /crons folders are inaccessible. The default .htaccess file has them marked as inaccessible, so you need not worry much.

Next, just navigate to index.php file, and follow the instructions. You do not necessarily need to have .htaccess enabled, but as already mentioned in the above step, the CMS does use it to prevent access to certain folders and enable mod_rewrite.

Speaking of mod_rewrite, you do not actually need the mod_rewrite module for Apache, albeit it is the recommended way of using FUEL CMS. You will need to alter the .htaccess file to the proper RewriteBase directory (generally the root directory of your installation).

Just in case you do not have mod_rewrite enabled, navigate to /application/config.php and locate $config[‘index_page’] and then change it to index.php (it should be blank by default).

Create your database, and then install it by running the /install/fuel_schema.sql file.

Once done, you will also need to make your /cache and /assets/images folders writable. Once again, these steps are just pointers, and you should ideally refer to the official documentation when in doubt. Also, note that certain modules may need their own SQL files to run.

After you are done with the installation, it is time to use FUEL CMS. The interface itself is nothing to talk about: it can probably use a facelift, but it works well in its current shape and form, and whatever gets the job done, gets the job done. So there is not much to complain to discuss here. Your admin panel is divided into sections and sub-sections to help you manage your website easily.

The admin panel and its sections are self-explanatory, so we shall simply move on to certain terms and concepts that are associated with FUEL CMS. Basically, website management in FUEL CMS revolves around Pages, Layouts, Modules and Blocks.

Pages: Pages are formed when you combine layouts with variable data. A page in FUEL CMS has additional properties too, such as a location (URL), status (published or not), and cache settings, etc.

Layouts: As is obvious, a layout determines what variables can be used with reference to a specific page.

Modules: Modules can be simple pointers or complex apps that can have properties of their own.

Blocks: Blocks are just reusable elements that can be used across pages (say, footer and header).

FUEL CMS also comes with certain security tweaks that you can use to your advantage. For instance, you can use dev_password to specify a dev password and protect your website from unauthorized viewers, or num_logins_before_lock to limit multiple failed login attempts. All such settings can be specified in the FUEL configuration. Certain modules have their own security settings.

Additional Details

FUEL CMS has a rather well-organized User Guide and Documentation. It is spread across multiple sections, much like a text-book. If you are looking for support, the documentation is the apex resource. Beyond that, the forums are full of activity as well. Thus, FUEL CMS scores full points in terms of docs and resources.

In terms of localization, FUEL CMS is currently available only in English. However, it does have potential for localization, and you can make full use of this very potential. Beyond that, FUEL CMS comes with multiple other bells and whistles, such as Markdown Helper, for instance.

Analysis And Verdict

FUEL CMS is not a big enterprise like Drupal or WordPress. The parent firm, Daylight Studio, is not Automattic or Acquia either. My guess is that they probably have to strike a balance between development of FUEL CMS and other client-work. Yet, this does not mean that FUEL CMS suffers from lack of attention; it is just that the CMS is not an all-encompassing solution like the big names out there. Over time, as FUEL CMS gains more popularity, it will be able to attract more and more coders and developers. However, all said and done, it will probably never become the de facto standard for web development (of course, in order to be called successful, it doesn’t have to become the de facto standard either).

So, should you use FUEL CMS? The answer is simple.

If you are a developer who intends to work with CodeIgniter framework and are looking for a ready to customize CMS, you should definitely check out FUEL CMS. If, on the other hand, you are not so comfortable with code, FUEL CMS is probably not the solution for you.

Have you ever used or are planning to use FUEL CMS? Share your experiences and thoughts with us in the comments below!